Some of Gary Larson’s best jokes inThe Far Sidefocus on the natural hilarity of the family. Many of these comics are funny simply because they’re so relatable, despite featuring the common, outlandish tropes found in Larson’s comics. Yet, these Far Side families, while hilariously relatable, may just change how you see your own.
Family is one of the most important things someone can have in their lives. Whether they’re the ones you’re born with or the ones you find along the way, families are always there to celebrate the highs and help through the lows. However,sometimes family, especially those featured inThe Far Side,can be chaotic, weird, and downright annoying.Gary Larson’s interpretation of the modern family offers a hilarious view of these oh-so-relatable experiences, reminding us that families can be just as complicated as they can be loving.
10Snake Family Drama
Publication Date: June 24, 2025
ThisFar Sidesceneis surprisingly more heartening than it is hilarious. In this comic, we see a family of snakes sitting around a dinner table, enjoying a meal of freshly dead rats. As the serpentine family chows down on their rodent meal, one of the younger snakes complains to his mom that his brother sneezed poison all over his meal.
As the mother looks down with a hidden glare at her children,it becomes even more apparent that this single mother may be a widow.Behind the family hangs a picture of a lone snake, potentially hinting that a family member has passed and now “eats” with the family as a picture on the wall. While the anthropomorphized depiction of feuding siblings is a hilariously relatable experience for anyone with siblings of their own, this comic tells a much sadder story about family than at first glance.
9Tell The Kids A Pleasant Story
Publication Date: July 24, 2025
Grandparents always have the best stories. Decades of lived experience accumulate a vast wealth of tales to tell, especially when those stories recount the most thrilling and harrowing of plots. In thisFar Sidecomic, a bodiless man appears to have recounted the story of how he lost everything below the neck once again, as his wifechastises him for telling the grandkids the same unpleasant story over and over again.
Not only do grandparents tend to tell the same, repetitive stories over time, but they also lack the verbal filter that parents are more inclined to use around their children. Grandparents, like the bodiless grandfather in this comic, can often forget the youthful innocence of their grandchildren, exposing young kids to wildly violent and mature stories that they would otherwise have been exposed to. Sadly, based on this grandpa’s soured expression, this story is probably his favorite to tell, much to his wife’s chagrin.
8Gramps Doesn’t Understand New Tricks
Publication Date: Jul 10, 2025
While the previous entry reminds us that grandparents are often filled with wisdom beyond our years, this comic also reminds us that grandparents aren’t as helpful at navigating the modern and changing world. Playing off the idiom“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,”this scene shows a young pooch asking his mom for help on a school assignment about learning new tricks. However, the puppy laments that he attempted to ask his grandfather for help but that“Gramps doesn’t understand the new tricks.”
This relatable scene is certainly something many of us have experienced in our lifetimes as we navigated through the complex struggles of school. Sometimes homework is too confusing to do alone and, with no teacher to ask for aid, you have to rely on your family to help. However, family is no substitute teacher, especially when new information is being added to the curriculum every year. Unfortunately, parents and grandparents can be left just as confused by school assignments as this poor puppy is here.
7The Cyclops Family Breakfast
Publication Date: July 08, 2025
Who would have ever thought that breakfast could be a dangerous meal? Well, anyone who has ever had citrus juice burst into their eye while trying to dig into a morning orange or grapefruit can affirm just how harrowing breakfast can really be. InthisFar Sidecomic, a family of Cyclopes attempts to enjoy a morning meal when the son and father accidentally send beams of citrus juice straight into the parents’ singular eyes.
While it’s not often that breakfast food strikes back, grapefruits seem to have it out for this Cyclops family. It doesn’t help when their eye takes up almost half of their face, increasing the chance that anything could accidentally find its way into an eye. Meanwhile, in these instances, all the rest of the table can do iswatch as their family’s eyes burn in acidic agony for a few momentswhile attempting to enjoy the rest of their horrifically sour breakfast.
6Dirk Brings His Family Tree To Class
Publication Date: July 08, 2025
WhileGary Larson loves biology, this truncated family tree may be glossing over a few steps between Proterozoic life, dinosaurs, and the Neanderthals. Regardless, this comic shows a class of young, early humans, as one boy named “Dirk” displays his family tree at a class presentation. Atop the chart sits his great-grandparents, which happen to be two sets of single-celled organisms. Next are his grandparents, who are all dinosaurs. Finally, there are his Neanderthalic parents and himself.
Family trees can be an excellent way for one to connect with their ancestry. Many classrooms have had their students present their familial predecessors as a means to show that history is a lived experience that everyone before us has been through. However, in this funnyFar Sidecomic,the family tree is more akin to a family sapling,as life is far too primitively early to show any more than four generations.
5This Is Your Side Of The Family
Publication Date: July 27, 2025
One of the weirdest parts about parenting is watching how much your and your partner’s genetics truly end up influencing how your children grow up. In this scene, we see a family of rattlesnakes having a heated conversation as their son widely shakes his head back and forth instead of the rattle on his tail. Meanwhile, one of the parents disapprovingly looks toward the other while lambasting“This is your side of the family, you realize.”
As funny as this scene is to us, it has to be a horribly awkward one for the young snake featured in the comic. To be stuck in the middle of your parents arguing over something that is “wrong” with you is both harrowing and uncomfortable, but is unfortunately a relatable experience for some. Fortunately,Gary Larson’s comical useof anthropomorphic animals helps alleviate the sad situation that seems to be unfolding between this rattlesnake family.
Publication Date: August 09, 2025
In this comic panel, a family looks through a set of family photos on a projector as they look upon a photo from their trip to the Grand Canyon. While most of the family in the photo is wearing a pleasant smile, the family’s youngest“just had to ruin the picture for everyone else”by making a silly face just before the camera snapped. Yet, it can’t be ignored that, despite the boy taking the brunt of the blame, the family is an especially strange-looking one.
Gary Larson loves to make wacky-looking characters and especially loves to play around with silly faces. Realistically, Larson may have been like the kid in this comic, always finding ways to be funny, even if it fails with the family. The cartoonist has frequently noted that his brother is to blame for his darker sense of humor, showing that these relatable family experiences aren’t justa staple inThe Far Sidecomics, but a source of inspiration as well.
Publication Date: June 17, 2025
What is a better way to keep your kids in line than threatening them with the haunting existence of viciously horrifying monsters? In this dark buthilariousFar Sidecomic, a mother threatens to summon the “Floating Head of Death,” as she exasperatedly scolds her son for not going to sleep. However, in reality, the Head of Death is nothing more than a balloon with a monstrous face being held by the father on a floor below.
While it may not make sense to terrify your child right before bed, humanity has been scaring the pants off our children for thousands of years. From cave-dwelling stories about fearing the woods to the Germanic fairy tales of old, fear has been used to keep kids from misbehaving as if it were a staple of human society.Funnily enough, this comic is a mildly relatable one for Gary Larson himself, who has said that his brother used to torture him with the threat of basement-dwelling monsters.
2Revenge Of The Dogs
Publication Date: June 30, 2025
A family isn’t quite complete without at least one family pet.Our furry, scaly, or slimy friends simply round out the family dynamic with a little critter who serves no other purpose than to bring joy into the home. However, kids don’t always understand boundaries and animals can’t speak up for themselves, leading to situations like the one featured in this comic panel.
In this comic, two children torturously pester the family dog as they yank on its ears and gnaw on its tail. Meanwhile, the pooch is lost in imagination, dreaming of burying the kids alive. This comic also touches on Gary Larson’s love of animals and the natural world. Larson hasfrequently usedThe Far Sideto stand up for animal life, often depicting animals getting the last laugh. However, in this situation, all the docile dog can do is fantasize as he accepts his annoying fate.
1We’re A Family Of Nerdenthals!
Publication Date: July 10, 2025
What’s worse than being called a Neanderthal by bullies? According to Gary Larson, being called a nerd too. In this strip, a young cave-boy, wearing a thick pair of glasses, comes home from school,complaining that his schoolmates are calling his family “Nerdenthals.”As he wonders whether the teasing may be true, his mother, also sporting a pair of spectacles, looks down, seemingly confirming the boy’s fears.
As a nerd himself,Gary Larson loved to useThe Far Sideto poke fun at his fellow geeks and dweebs, even those thousands of years in the past. However, what makes this comic particularly hilarious is the insinuation that even Neanderthals went to school and got bullied for being nerds too, despite their comparative lack of intelligence to schoolkids today. Sadly for the poor Neanderthal, his dweeby family became the butt-end of a classicFar Sidepunchline.
